Starmer reveals fears for his sister-in-law after ‘arson attack’ on his home
The prime minister said the alleged arson incident left he and his wife Victoria ‘really shaken up’
Sir Keir Starmer has revealed fears for his sister-in-law after an alleged arson attack on his home, saying he and his wife were “really shaken up."
The prime minister said his wife’s sister and her partner had been in bed at the house, which they had been renting from the prime minister, when the fire occurred late at night.
“She happened to still be awake,” Sir Keir said. “So she heard the noise and got the fire brigade. But it could have been a different story.”
The incident took place the night before the prime minister gave a press conference on migration, which saw him use the phrase "island of strangers" – a remark which drew immediate backlash and comparisons to the divisive rhetoric of Enoch Powell.
He has now said he “deeply regrets” the phrasing, claiming that the alleged arson attack had left him "not in the best state" to deliver the press conference.
Sir Keir explained that he had considered cancelling the event, which took place just hours later.
In the speech, he warned Britain risked becoming “an island of strangers” without tougher immigration controls – rhetoric that sparked an immediate backlash and was denounced by critics, including within Labour ranks, as divisive.
At the time, Downing Street doubled down on the remarks and said Sir Keir “completely rejects” suggestions he had echoed Powell’s infamous 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech, which whipped up a frenzy of anti-immigration hatred across the UK.
But in an emotive interview with The Observer, Sir Keir walked back from the remarks, saying the language “wasn’t right”.
“I wouldn’t have used those words if I had known they were, or even would be interpreted as an echo of Powell,” he said.
“I had no idea – and my speechwriters didn’t know either. But that particular phrase – no – it wasn’t right. I’ll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it.”
He added: “It’s fair to say I wasn’t in the best state to make a big speech… I was really, really worried. I almost said: ‘I won’t do the bloody press conference.’
“[His wife] Vic was really shaken up as, in truth, was I. It was just a case of reading the words out and getting through it somehow … so I could get back to them.”
But the PM stressed he was not seeking to use the alleged arson attack as an excuse and does not blame his advisers, saying he should have read through the speech properly and “held it up to the light a bit more”.
He also backed down on language in his foreword to the policy document linked to the speech, which said record high numbers of migrants entering the UK under the last government had done “incalculable damage”.
Sir Keir insisted the issue needed addressing because the party “became too distant from working-class people on things like immigration”, but said “this wasn’t the way to do it in this current environment”.
At the time of the speech, Sir Keir’s own MPs drew parallels between the phrase and a passage from Powell’s speech in which he claimed white Britons were at risk of becoming “strangers in their own country”.
Norwich South MP Clive Lewis said: “It’s simply not sustainable for the prime minister to echo the language of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech – invoking the idea of ‘living in a land of strangers’.
“This kind of language doesn’t just alienate communities, it drives people away from our country altogether. And if those at the top think this is a clever tactic to win another five years by rolling out the red carpet for Nigel Farage, they’re mistaken. We are losing far more progressive voters than we are gaining from Reform UK.”
Meanwhile, Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, argued the “step-up in anti-migrant rhetoric from the government is shameful and dangerous.”
Asked about Sir Keir’s remarks on Friday, his official spokesperson said he has “always been clear that migrants make a massive contribution to our society”.
“We never denigrate that. Britain is an inclusive, tolerant country, but migration needs to be managed within rules”, he added.